The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday exempted certain operators from the tough rules it had announced in August on the opening of current accounts.

The regulator had sought to crack down on multiple operating accounts: banks would not be allowed to open new current accounts for customers who have already availed themselves credit facilities in the form of cash credit (CC) and overdraft (OD); all transactions should be routed through the existing CC/OD account.

In a notification, the RBI said banks can open specific accounts which include accounts from real estate projects to maintain 70 per cent of advance payments collected from the home buyers.

Accounts can also be opened for the purpose of IPO or follow on public offering, new fund offer, share buyback or dividend payment and issuance of commercial papers.

Banks can also open accounts for the payment of taxes, duties, statutory dues, accounts of White Label ATM operators and their agents for sourcing of currency.

The facility has been extended to payment aggregators or pre-paid instrument issuers.

Banks shall flag these accounts in the CBS (core banking system) for easy monitoring. Lenders to such borrowers may also enter into agreements/arrangements with the borrowers for monitoring of cash flows/periodic transfer of funds (if permissible) in these current accounts.